Various structures heretofore have been provided for drying beds of hops. Conventionally, a plurality of closely spaced jsupport strips are erected in a horizontal plane and a loosely woven support panel is disposed over the strips for the purpose of supporting a bed of hops to be dried from the strips, heated drying air being pumped upwardly through the strips and the support panel for ultimate upward passage through the bed of hops in order to dry the same. However, as a bed of hops dried, the hops contract, compact and form a crust which blocks the passage of drying air upwardly through the bed. This blockage of drying air extends the necessary drying time, consumes greater amounts of fuel and requires the erection and use of additional drying buildings in order to enable all of a crop of hops to be harvested and dried within a given length of time. Accordingly, a need exists for a structure and method by which a partially dried and caked or crusted bed of hops may be broken up to enable continued passage of drying air therethrough. Conventionally, workmen walk on the partially dried bed of hops and jab pitchfork-like implements down into the bed, the tines of the implements including enlarged heads on the free ends thereof whereby they will not readily penetrate the loosely woven panel supporting the bed of hops and will break up the bed of hops as the tines are pulled upwardly therethrough. This, of course, subjects the workmen to extreme high temperatures and consumes considerable time.
In addition, various different types of driers including some provided with agitating structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 78,485, 277,876, 361,6422, 660,408 and 3,036,510.